00:00Has Meta interfered in the Hungarian elections?
00:07A social media campaign alleging Meta is interfering in Hungary's elections, scheduled for 12 April,
00:13has surfaced in recent weeks.
00:14The vote pits pro-European Peter Magyar, head of the TISA opposition party, against long-time
00:20EU critic Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
00:22In this ex-post, Lebanese-Australian political commentator Mario Nafol claimed Facebook restricted
00:29Orban's post after a TISA party member and former Meta employee urged supporters to mass
00:35report his content.
00:36These claims were picked up by the Fidesz-aligned Mandana newspaper, which identified the opposition
00:41politician in question as MEP Dora David, a former legal adviser to Meta.
00:47In reality, these allegations take some of her past claims out of context.
00:51For instance, in this video posted in November 2025, David denied manipulating Meta's algorithm
00:57and encourage followers to report false and hateful Fidesz posts.
01:01While it's forbidden to manipulate Meta's algorithm to target a political opponent's
01:05campaign, users can flag content that violates community standards.
01:09TDAV's call for users to flag harmful content does not breach the guidelines.
01:13In fact, this falls in line with Europe's Digital Services Act, which urges social media
01:18companies to mitigate the spread of disinformation and harmful content.
01:22In another ex-post, conservative political commentator Philip Pilkington, who is linked to Orban-affiliated
01:28think tanks, accused Meta employee Oskar Brzezinski of suppressing Orban's social media.
01:33Now, Pilkington declined to provide further details, stating that his claim was based on
01:37information from a senior government source in Budapest.
01:40We found no evidence of Meta targeting or censoring Fidesz or Orban.
01:44While Meta didn't answer our questions over the allegations concerning Brzezinski and David,
01:49a spokesperson confirmed that there are no restrictions on Orban's accounts
01:53and that no posts have been removed.
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